1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique applicable to a wire harness for a vehicle to connect a plurality of grounding wires included in the wire harness collectively to a given ground site inside the vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
Heretofore, as a ground connecting device for collectively connecting a plurality of grounding wires included in a wire harness for a vehicle to a ground site of the vehicle, there has been known one type described in JP 10-208815A.
FIG. 14 shows an outline of this device. The device comprises a harness-side connector 207 and a ground joint connector 201. The harness-side connector 207 is provided at a terminal end of a wire harness including a plurality of grounding wires, while the ground joint connector 201 is fixed to a given ground site (in FIG. 14, a bolt 206) provided to a vehicle body 203. The harness-side connector 207 includes a plurality of non-illustrated female terminals to be attached to respective terminal ends of the grounding wires and a connector housing 208 collectively holding the female terminals, the harness-side connector housing 208 having a plurality of terminal locking portions therein, each of the terminal locking portions adapted to hold a corresponding one of the female terminals. The ground joint connector 201 includes a grounding conductor 205 and a connector housing 202 which holds the grounding conductor 205. The grounding conductor 205 integrally has a grounding terminal portion 204 fixed to the ground site and a plurality of non-illustrated male terminals provided inside the connector housing 202.
This device is capable of interconnecting the ground joint connector 201 and the harness-side connector 207 and fixing the grounding terminal portion 204 of the ground joint connector 201 to the bolt 206 serving as the ground site, thereby achieving a collective connection of the grounding wires to the ground site. More specifically, each of the female terminals held in the connector housing 208 of the harness-side connector 207 can be fitted to a corresponding one of the male terminals of the grounding conductor 205 held in the connector housing 202 of the ground joint connector 201, thus electrically connecting the grounding wires to which the female terminals are attached to the ground site through the female terminals and the grounding conductor 205; simultaneously, the connector housing 208 of the harness-side connector 207 and the connector housing 202 of the ground joint connector 201 are fitted to each other, and this fitting is locked by engagement between respective engagement portions provided in the two connector housings 208 and 202, so that the fitness of each of the female terminals and the male terminals is maintained.
However, the ground connecting device has a problem of poor usability in a narrow space inside a vehicle, because of its large occupancy space. Specifically, the device requires a structure for fitting the connector housings 208 and 202, the structure increasing a size of the entire device: in detail, each of the harness-side connector 207 and the ground joint connector 201 are individually needed for holding the terminals, and the two connector housings 208 and 202 are required to be interconnected and locked to hold the fitness of the terminals of the connectors 207 and 201. In order to avoid interference between the vehicle body 203 and each of the connector housings 208 and 202, the connectors 207 and 201 are required to greatly project from an inner surface of a vehicle body 203.
Besides, in the case of collectively connecting two or more wire harnesses each including a plurality of grounding wires to a common ground site, the connecting requires two or more sets of the connector housings 208 and 202 for the respective wire harnesses to be arranged side-by-side around the ground site, which enlarges the occupancy space of the device.
In addition, if there is another grounding terminal 209, as shown in FIG. 14, which is attached to an extra grounding wire W and is to be superimposed and electrically connected to the grounding terminal portion 204, the gap size L between the vehicle body 203 and each of the connector housings 208 and 202 has to be increased as shown in FIG. 14 to avoid interference between the grounding terminal 209 and each of the connector housings 208 and 202, which further enlarges the occupancy space of the entire device.